In general, an electronic cabinet is a large enclosure which houses electronic equipment. Such a cabinet typically provides access to the electronic equipment through a front opening at a front of the cabinet and a rear opening at the rear of the cabinet. Accordingly, manufacturers typically position electronic circuitry requiring relatively frequent access adjacent the front opening, and other electronic circuitry requiring relatively frequent access adjacent the rear opening. For example, some conventional data storage systems have arrays of hot-swappable disk drives at the front opening of the cabinet, and hot-swappable processor and memory modules at the rear opening of cabinet to service the disk drives.
Additionally, manufacturers typically locate power units that provide power to the electronic equipment in static locations which are out of the way of the electronic circuitry which requires frequent access. One conventional data storage system layout has power units statically located at the bottom of the cabinet where the power units do not interfere with access to the disk drives and the circuit board modules. Access to these components is unobstructed because the power units are (i) adjacent the front opening at the bottom of the cabinet or, alternatively, (ii) adjacent the rear opening at the bottom of the cabinet. Accordingly, a technician has easy access to circuits at both the front and rear of the cabinet without removing a power unit thus enabling the data storage system to remain powered-up and operational.
Another conventional data storage system layout has power units, which are elongated in shape, stacked in a static column in the middle of the cabinet. Here, a front portion of each power unit is adjacent the front opening of the cabinet and is flush with an array of disk drives which are distributed on both sides of the column of power units and which are also adjacent the front opening of the cabinet. Additionally, a rear portion of each power unit is adjacent the rear opening of the cabinet and is thus accessible through the rear opening. Again, a technician has easy access to circuits at the front and rear of the cabinet without removing a power unit from the middle column thus allowing the data storage system to remain powered-up and operational during access.